Video apps more popular on tablets than smartphones

Friday 4 March 2016 | 14:35 CET | Background

YouTube is the most popular video app installed on both the tablets and smartphones of Dutch consumers, followed by the apps for RTLXL, NPO and Netflix. The Netflix app has been installed on around 2.1 million smartphones and 1.1 million tablets. Most video apps however are more popular on the tablet than the smartphone. Across all tablets, 77 percent have at least one video app installed, compared to 67 percent of smartphones, according to research by Telecompaper in January.

The Telecompaper Consumer Panel looked at the apps YouTube, NPO, RTLXL, Netflix, Horizon GO, KPN iTV Online, FOX Sports GO, Popcorn Time, Film1 Go, HBO GO, Ziggo Sport Totaal GO, Telfort Online TV and Telfort Glasvezel. YouTube was found to be by far the most common on tablets, with a penetration of 63 percent or at least three times more than of the other apps. In second place were the apps from broadcasters NPO and RTL, with each on 23 percent of tablets.

Previous research by Telecompaper found that almost eight in ten Dutch consumers (78%) used YouTube at least once in the past year. In that survey, YouTube was again around three times more popular than RTLXL (27%).

Provider apps installed less often

Provider-specific video applications, aimed at customers of pay-TV providers, are less often installed on tablets and smartphones. This makes sense given the smaller customer base relative to the entire population. The Horizon GO app was installed by 16 percent of consumers on a tablet, followed by KPN iTV Online (11%), Telfort Online TV (2%) and Telfort Glasvezel (1%).

FOX Sport GO was on 4 percent of tablets in January, while the Ziggo Sport Totaal GO app was on 2 percent. Popcorn Time had a penetration of 4 percent, and Film1 GO and HBO GO were on just 2 percent of tablets. In Q4 2015 around 230,000 Dutch households subscribed to Film1 (3%) and 305,000 to HBO (4%), according to Telecompaper's Video behaviour of Dutch consumers report.

Of course having an app installed doesn't necessarily mean it's used. Some may have also ended their subscription to a paid service but not yet un-installed the app.

Netflix app on 18% of smartphones

YouTube was also in first place in terms of smartphone penetration among video apps, at 54 percent penetration. This is three times Netflix, which was in second place, and the NPO, at 14 percent of smartphones.

Netflix is installed on almost a fifth of smartphones (18%), while HBO is on just 1 percent. This means about 2.1 million people have Netflix on their phone and 135,000 the HBO video app. The number of subscribers to Netflix is also much higher, at 17 percent versus 4 percent for HBO.

Video applications more on tablets

The survey also found that for all applications, penetration was higher on tablets than smartphones. Popcorn Time was the only exception, with a 4 percent penetration for both types of device. YouTube is on 63 percent of tablets versus 54 percent of smartphones, equal to around 3.3 million households with tablets and 6.5 million smartphone users. RTLXL was on 23 percent of tablets and 13 percent of smartphones,and the figures were respectively 23 percent and 14 percent for NPO.

Tablet users were also less likely to say they had none of the researched video apps on their device, at 23 percent versus 33 percent of smartphone users. In general, we can conclude that consumers prefer video on the bigger screen.

More insight into the penetration, usage and user satisfaction of video apps on the smartphone can be found in the Dutch Apps Market report. This breaks down the penetration in terms of provider, age, gender, education, type of subscription and Apple versus Samsung. TheVideo behaviour of Dutch consumers report, to be published this month, provides more information on the devices used to consumer video content, viewing behaviour and the number of subscribers for various themed channels and OTT video services.

This research is based on theTelecompaper Consumer Panel. The question was posed to the panel in January. Tablet owners were asked which video apps they have on their tablets (n=1,341) and the same question was posed to smartphone owners (n=1,502). The same question was asked in October 2015. Panel participants are aged 12-80, and results are stratified according to age, gender and education. For more information about research opportunities with the panel, please contact research@telecompaper.com.

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